Terminal to execute a terminal application

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to terminal (T) for use in a communication network. The terminal (T) comprises a plurality of terminal capability means (CAP 1 , CAP 2 , CAP 3 , CAP 4 ) to realize a plurality of terminal capability features. Terminal application means (APP 1 ; APP 2 ; APP 3 ; APP 4 ) are coupled to the terminal capability means to interact with one or more of the plurality of terminal capability means (CAP 1 , CAP 2 , CAP 3 , CAP 4 ) and to execute thereby a terminal application (app 1 ; app 2 ; app 3 ; app 4 ). The terminal (T) further comprises at least one terminal capability server means (CS) coupled between the terminal application means (APP 1 ; APP 2 ; APP 3 ; APP 4 ) and to at least one of the plurality of terminal capability means (CAP 1 ; CAP 2 ; CAP 3 ; CAP 4 ). The terminal capability server means (CS) is adapted to translate a first application signal (S 1 ) received from at least one of the plurality of terminal capability means (CAP 3 ) into a first predefined application open signal (SO 1 ) and to provide the first predefined application open signal (SO 1 ) to the terminal application means (APP 1 ; APP 2 ; APP 3 ; APP 4 ). The terminal capability server mens (CS) is also adapted to translate a second predefined application open signal (SO 2 ) received from the terminal application means (APP 1 ; APP 2 ; APP 3 ; APP 4 ) into a second application signal (S 2 ) and to provide the second application signal (S 2 ) to at least one of the plurality of terminal capability means (CAP 1 ; CAP 2 ; CAP 3 ; CAP 4 )-. The first predefined application open signal (SO 1 ) and the second predefined application open signal (SO 2 ) are defined independent of an underlying technology of the plurality of terminal capability means (CAP 1 ; CAP 2 ; CAP 3 ; CAP 4 ).

[0001] The present invention relates to a terminal to execute a terminalapplication as described in the preamble of claim 1, the terminalapplication to be executed by such a terminal as described in thepreamble of claim 4, a carrier of such a terminal application asdescribed in the preamble of claim 6, a method realized by such aterminal as described in the preamble of claim 7 and a communicationnetwork comprising such a terminal, such a terminal application asdescribed in the preamble of claim 8.

[0002] Such a terminal with terminal capabilities and terminalapplications means coupled thereto to interact with the terminalcapabilities and to execute thereby a terminal application is especiallyknown in communication networks referred as a Universal MobileTelecommunication Systems UMTS. For such an UMTS network the concept ofVirtual Home environment is defined. A Virtual home environment isdefined as a concept for personal service environment portability acrossnetwork boundaries and between terminals. The concept of the VirtualHome environment is such that users are consistently presented with thesame personalized features, User Interface customization and services inwhatever network and whatever kind of terminal, wherever the user may belocated. The Virtual Home Environment is seen as a key mechanism forconvergence of fixed and mobile terminals, for public and privatenetworks and operators and for telecommunication and data communicationsystems.

[0003] A terminal, either fixed terminal or mobile terminal, for use insuch a virtual home environment comprises terminal capability meanswhere for here below a non-exhaustive list of examples is provided:

[0004] a Wireless Application Protocol WAP client that communicates viaa WAP gateway with a WEB server in the Internet or other terminals. WAPspecifies an application framework and network protocols for wirelessdevices such as mobile phones, pagers and personal digital assistants.The network protocols specify a way of transporting data between anInternet Protocol IP network and mobile terminals. The applicationframework enables the creation of Internet like services; and

[0005] a Wireless Telephone Application WTA client that communicateswith a WTA server in the network. WTA specifies an application frameworkthat extends the WAP architecture with telephony services. It is acollection of telephony specific extension for call and feature controlmechanisms that make advanced Mobile Network Services available tousers. In contrast with classical client-server architecture e.g. WAPwhere the client continuously communicates with the server for theexecution of the services actually running on the server, WTA adopts aterminal centric approach. WTA services run in the WTA client on themobile terminal, which only communicates with the WTA server formaintenance and reconfiguration reasons; and

[0006] a Java execution environment such as e.g. a Java card. A JavaCardis a recent evolution in the area of smart-cards with an enhancedarchitecture that has a Java Card Virtual Machine JCVM on top of itsnative Operating System OS and allows to develop applications written inJava programming language; and

[0007] a User Service Identity Module USIM module that comprises e.g. anauthentication algorithm and a ciphering key, a card identification, auser identification, network and service related data and UMTS SIMapplications i.e. USIM applications; and

[0008] a SIM Application Tool-kit provides mechanisms which allowapplications that exist on the USIM to interact and to operate with anypart of the mobile equipment of a mobile terminal.

[0009] It has to be remarked that according to the virtual homeenvironment definitions a User Service Identity Module that identifies auser can be comprised in as well a fixed terminal as a mobile terminal.Such a USIM card comprises terminal capability means but might as wellcomprise terminal applications means with a terminal application.

[0010] The above mentioned terminal capabilities are realizing terminalcapability features whilst being supported by terminal bearers such ase.g. short message service SMS, circuit switched data and Generic PacketRadio Service. It has to be mentioned that a particular manufacturerdevelops these terminal capability features and terminal bearers. Inthis way the terminal capability features and terminal bearers aretechnology dependent according to the choices of a manufacturer.

[0011] The known kind of terminals further comprises a terminalapplication means to interact with one or more of the terminalcapabilities in order to execute a terminal application.

[0012] A terminal application provides to a user of a terminal aparticular service such as e.g. ‘a call forwarding application accordingto the user's preferences’ or ‘a voice message application’ or ‘personalbanking applications’, etc. It has to be remarked that such a terminalapplication is a hardware module or, more commons, a software module.Such a software module terminal application is information e.g. logicand data that can be stored at production time on e.g. a read onlymemory of the terminal, but on the other hand, it might as well bedownloaded from a service provider in the telecommunication network one.g. an accessible memory of the terminal during operational use of theterminal. It has to be remarked that such a terminal application isusual designed according to a higher programming language level.

[0013] A terminal application means comprises at least part of the dataconcerning the present application and an application executionenvironment. In this way the execution environment, under the support ofthe associated terminal capability means, executes the data of theapplication e.g. a WAP application means executes a particular WAPapplication by interacting with the associated WAP client.

[0014] It has to be remarked here that since the terminal capabilitymeans is technology dependent according to a certain manufacturer, thatalso the related application is developed towards this technology ofthis manufacturer. Indeed, in order to be executed by the terminalapplication means that interacts with the terminal capability means theterminal application must be designed according to the same interfaces.This means that an application signal that is transmitted by theterminal capability means is received and understood by the terminalapplication means that executes an application being developed accordingto the same manufacturer preferences as the one used for the terminalcapability means, and vice versa.

[0015] A problem outstanding with such kind of terminals is that in theevent when a third party service provider develops a terminalapplication for use on a terminal, that the application must be writtenfor different underlying technologies preferred and used by differentmanufacturers of terminals. Indeed, a terminal application developedaccording to preferences of a first manufacturer is not able tocooperate via the terminal application means with a terminal capabilitymeans being developed according to preferences of a second manufacturer.

[0016] Furthermore, two different terminal applications applied on asame terminal are not able to interact with each other when beingdesigned for different kind of terminal capability means.

[0017] An object of the invention is to provide a terminal for use in acommunication network that executes a terminal application such as theabove known terminal but which has not the above mentioned drawback ofthe requirement of development of different terminal application designsfor execution of a this terminal application by interacting withdifferent terminal capability means of possible different manufacturer'sunderlying technology.

[0018] This is realized by the terminal of claim 1 that executes theterminal application of claim 4 on the carrier of claim 6, that realizesthe method of claim 7 and that is comprised in the communication networkof claim 8.

[0019] Indeed, by comprising in the terminal according to the inventionat least one terminal capability server means being coupled between theterminal application means and one or more of the plurality of terminalcapability means, the terminal is adapted to translate a firstapplication signal from the terminal capability means into a firstpredefined application open signal and to provide this first predefinedapplication open signal to the terminal application means and theterminal is further adapted to translate a second predefined applicationopen signal from the terminal application means into a secondapplication signal and to provide this second application signal to theterminal capability means. Furthermore, by defining the first predefinedapplication open signal and the second predefined application opensignal independent of an underlying technology of the plurality ofterminal capability means, a third party service provider is enabled towrite only one terminal application for use on different kind ofterminals with different underlying technologies being preferred andused by different kind of manufacturers. Indeed, when the manufacturersof different type of technologies comprise a terminal capability servermeans in its terminal, that is designed to translate technologydependent application signals into predefined application open signalssimilar to the first predefined application open signal and to translatepredefined application open signals similar to the second predefinedapplication open signal into technology dependent application signals,these manufacturers encourage third party service providers to developservices once that can be deployed on any kind or any type of terminal.These predefined application open signals are defined and agreed betweenthe different manufacturers independent of their own technology specificaspects.

[0020] A further advantage of such kind of approach is the fact that oneterminal application that is executed by a terminal application meanscan interact with different terminal capability means being developedwith different underlying technologies such as e.g. a particular WAPapplication that interacts with a WAP client that is developed by onemanufacturer and with another kind of terminal capability means such asa WTA client being developed by another manufacturer.

[0021] It has to be explained that the carrier of claim 6 can berealized by the terminal itself e.g. a memory element at the terminalapplication means, or by a third party service provider in order to bedownloaded by a user or by a physical link between one of the networkelements when e.g. being downloaded or just being transported.

[0022] A further feature, that is described in claim 2, is that thefirst predefined open signal and the second predefined open signal aredefined in correspondence to information of a predefined network openservice architecture interface. This will become more clear in thefollowing paragraph.

[0023] Such predefined network open service architecture interface ise.g. described by the third Generation Partnership Project, TechnicalSpecification Group Services and System Aspects, Virtual Homeenvironment/Open Service Architecture with reference 3G TS 23.127version 1.0.0 and available for the public at by 650 Route desLucioles—Sophia Antipolis, Valbonne—France and via the World Wide Web athttp://www.3gpp.org and in October, 1999. This document describes anOpen Service Architecture. It is mentioned that the Open ServiceArchitecture OSA defines an architecture that enables operator and thirdparty applications to make use of network functionality through an openstandardized interface i.e. the OSA Interface. Open Service Architectureprovides the glue between applications and service capabilities providedby the network. In this way applications become independent from theunderlying network technology. The applications constitute the top levelof the Open Service Architecture OSA. This level is connected to theService Capability Servers via the Open Service Architecture interface.The Service Capability Servers map the Open Service Architectureinterface onto the underlying telecom specific protocols and aretherefore hiding the network complexity from the applications.

[0024] Applications can be network/server centric applications orterminal centric applications. Terminal centric applications reside inthe terminal e.g. a Subscriber Identity Module SIM application toolkitapplication called shortly SAT application. Network/server centricapplications are outside the core network and make use of servicecapability features offered through the Open Service Architecture. Ithas to be remarked that applications may belong to the network operatordomain although running outside the core network. Outside the corenetwork means that the applications are executed in Applications Serversthat are physically separated from the network entities.

[0025] A third party service provider is with such an predefined networkopen service architecture enabled to write once a network applicationthat makes use of network functionality according to an networkindependent way. Such a network application is e.g. a call conferenceapplication on a call conference application server as e.g. described inthe above-mentioned document in Chapter 9, Annex—Example of use of OSA(informative). Herein, a user A desires to have a call conference with auser B and a user C. The network application requests the Camel ServiceCapability Server to set up a call according to the call forwardingpreferences of user A. The call conference service settings of user Aare known by e.g. interacting via the terminal of user A that comprisesterminal capability means which are developed by differentmanufacturers. In this way, the third party service provider still needsto write different applications towards these different underlyingtechnologies of different terminals. According to the example, theprocedure of the call set up is ordered via a WAP communication. ThisWAP communication can be implemented by a WAP terminal application thatinteracts with a WAP client on the terminal of user A i.e. a terminalcapability means of the terminal that communicates with a WAP server inthe network. The WAP terminal application asks for instance via theterminal display to the user the different call conference parties uponwhich user A enters e.g. the user identification numbers of user B anduser C and itself. The WAP terminal application is executed on the WAPterminal application means by interacting with the WAP terminalcapability means, which is technology dependent. The present inventionbrings an improvement to such kind of service network applications whichinteract also with terminals by comprising the terminal capabilityserver means CS in the terminal to translate the technology dependentapplication signals into technology independent open applicationsignals. However, by defining the predefined application open signals incorrespondence to information of such a predefined network open servicearchitecture interface the flexibility towards the third party serviceproviders is further improved. Indeed, since the network application isprovided here by a third service provider, it is preferred that the userA takes contact, not with its home service provider of its home network,but directly with the service provider that the service provides.Therefor the application at the terminal of user A needs to know e.g.the identification information of this third party service providerwhich is defined according to the predefined network open servicearchitecture. This is realized by the terminal of claim 2 and by theterminal application of claim 5. It has to be remarked that the abovementioned identification information is only cited as an example, andthat the information of the present invention, in correspondence to apredefined network open service architecture interface, is not limitedto only identification information of a third party service provider.

[0026] A final feature of he present invention is described in claim 3.This is the fact that not only the interchanged signals between aterminal application means and a terminal capability means are terminaltechnology independent or are comprising information in accordance to apredefined network open service architecture interface information. Itis also preferable that different terminal capability means are adaptedto interact, either directly or indirectly via a terminal capabilityserver means, according to predefined independent application opensignals or according to signals comprising information of predefinednetwork open service architecture. It has to be explained that as anexample a SIM Application Tool-kit generates commands for the USIM ofe.g. a mobile terminal, towards other parts of the mobile equipment.According to the present invention, such a command can comprise anidentification reference of a terminal application on a terminalapplication means or an identification reference of a third partyservice provider in order to initiate e.g. a short message towards thisthird party service provider.

[0027] It should be noticed that the term ‘comprising’, used in theclaims, should not be interpreted as being limitative to the meanslisted thereafter. Thus, the scope of the expression ‘a devicecomprising A and B’ should not be limited to devices consisting only ofcomponents A and B. It means that with respect to the present invention,the only relevant components of the device are A and B.

[0028] Similarly, it is to be noted that the term ‘coupled’, also usedin the claims, should not be interpreted as being limitative to directconnections only. Thus, the scope of the expression ‘a device A coupledto a device B’ should not be limited to devices or systems wherein anoutput of device A is directly connected to an input of device B. Itmeans that there exists a path between an output of A and an input of Bwhich may be a path including other devices or means.

[0029] The above and other objects and features of the invention willbecome more apparent and the invention itself will be best understood byreferring to the following description of an embodiment taken inconjunction with the accompanying figure that represents atelecommunication network in a virtual environment that comprises aterminal according to the present invention. Referring to the figure theworking of the terminal in accordance with the other network elementswill be explained by means of a functional description of the functionalblocks shown therein. Based on this description, implementation of thefunctional blocks will be obvious to a person skilled in the art andwill therefore not be described in detail. In additional, the principleworking of the terminal regarding the invention will be described infurther detail by means of three principle examples.

[0030] The communication network comprises a terminal T, a third partyservice provider 3rdSP and a visited mobile network VN. For thisparticular embodiment it is preferred to choose a mobile terminal.However, it has to be explained that the scope of the invention is notlimited to mobile terminals and might be as well a fixed terminal. Inorder to explain the present invention by means of an example that isdescribed in a later paragraph wherein the terminal is located in avisited i.e. not its home mobile network, a limited number of functionalblocks of this visited mobile network will be shortly described.

[0031] The mobile network comprises, according to the definitions of thenetwork open service architecture of the above mentioned document of3GPP a service capability server SCS; a Customized Application forMobile Network enhanced Logic Camel CML i.e. the required functionalityto provide a mobile network a service of an intelligent network; a shortmessage server SMS and a mobile switching center MSC. The servicecapability server SCS comprises a Camel service capability serverCML-SCS on top of the Camel CML and a short message service capabilityserver SMS-SCS on top of the short message server SMS.

[0032] It has to be remarked that these network elements are onlymentioned in order to better explain the advantages of the presentinvention and that therefor these functional blocks are not described infurther detail.

[0033] The terminal comprises four terminal capabilities CAP1, CAP 2,CAP3 and CAP4, four terminal application means APP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4with four terminal applications app1, app2, app3 and app4, and onecapability server CS.

[0034] It has to be understood that the applications app1, app2, app3and app4, which are to be executed by the terminal application means,APP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4 are at least partly stored at the terminalapplication means, APP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4. How and when theapplications are stored or eventual downloaded from the network goesbeyond the scope of the invention. The aim is the fact that the logicand data, shortly called data information, concerning the execution ofthe applications is at least partly present at the application means andthat this data information is to be used by the application means inorder to provide a service to the user of the mobile terminal.

[0035] The terminal T comprises terminal equipment TE and an USIM.

[0036] The terminal equipment TE comprises as well terminal capabilitiesas terminal application means i.e. the terminal capabilities CAP1, CAP2,CAP4 and the terminal application means APP1 and APP2. The terminalequipment TE further comprises e.g. basic equipment of the mobileterminal to execute basic functionality for the mobile terminal such ase.g. setting up a communication.

[0037] The USIM is comprised to identify the user of the terminal and topersonalize the terminal to this user. Furthermore by inserting the USIMin this terminal T the user informs the communication network the factthat he desires to communicate via this mobile terminal. The USIMcomprises as well terminal capabilities CAP3 and CAP4 as two terminalapplication means APP3 and APP4.

[0038] It has to be remarked that in this way the terminal capabilitiesCAP4 is comprised in the USIM an in the terminal equipment TE. This willbecome more clear in a further paragraph wherein the terminalcapabilities CAP is implemented with a SAT which indeed partly coversboth functional blocks.

[0039] The four capabilities CAP2, CAP2, CAP3 and CAP4 are coupled viathe capability server CS to one or more of the terminal applicationmeans APP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4. In this way APP2 is coupled via thecapability server CS to capability CAP1 and capability CAP2.

[0040] It has to be remarked that the terminal capability server CS ispreferred to be a centralized capability server. However, the terminalcapability server CS can be distributed in the terminal towards thedifferent terminal capabilities. In this way capability CAP 1 could haveits own capability server and also capability CAP2 could have its owncapability server. Furthermore, these two dedicated capability serverscould on their turn be coupled to a centralized terminal capabilityserver (not shown).

[0041] The terminal capability server CS is comprised to translatetechnology dependent application signals e.g. S1 received from one ofthe terminal capabilities CAP1, CAP2, CAP3 and CAP4 into technologyindependent open application signals e.g. SO1 and to provide thesetechnology independent open application signals to one or more of theterminal application means APP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4. Further more theterminal capability server CS is comprised to translate technologyindependent open application signals e.g. SO2 received from one of theterminal applications means APP1, APP2, APP3 and APP4 into technologydependent application signals e.g. S2 and to provide these technologydependent application signals to one or more of the terminalcapabilities CAP1, CAP2, CAP3 and CAP4. Since the terminal capabilityserver CS is a centralized block it is preferred to show thistranslation in both directions by means of the two double arrows in thefigure. The technology independent open application signals are calledpredefined application open signals e.g. SO1 and SO2. It has to beremarked that the predefined terminal application open signals arepredefined according to a cooperation between different manufacturers ofdifferent type of terminals, whereby functionality such as basicterminal functions but also functions regarding the terminalcapabilities are determined and defined in a uniform way. The determinedfunctions are translated into these predefined application open signalsand vice versa.

[0042] Furthermore, for this particular embodiment it is preferred tofurther determine the predefined application open signals in accordancewith the information of a predefined network open service architectureinterface according to the above mentioned information of 3GPP. However,it has to be remarked that this accordance is elementary for the presentinvention. This will become more clearly in a further paragraph.

[0043] A first example that will be described to explain the principleworking and the advantages of the present invention concerns anapplication based on a call forwarding application. Presume that theterminal capability CAP1 is a wireless telephone application WTA clientcapability that supports the terminal application app1 i.e. a wirelesstelephone application WTA. A first manufacturer develops the WTAterminal capability and also the WTA application. Presume that theterminal capability CAP2 is a short message terminal capability SMS thatis developed by a second manufacturer. The terminal application meansAPP1 comprises in this way a call forwarding application app1. Thismeans that the user is enabled to install its own call forwardingpreferences and to forward received communications to another e.g.telephone number. Presume that a third party service provider wants todevelop an application that provides a service similar to the callforwarding application but furthermore wants to provide to its userclients the extra service of automatically generating a short message toa predefined identification number. According to prior art terminalsthis third party service provider needs to contact the firstmanufacturer and the second manufacturer to gather the knowledge of theunderlying technology for the terminal capabilities CAP1 and CAP2.However, according to the present invention the terminal T comprises thecapability server CS to translate the technology dependent applicationsignals such as S1 into predefined application open signals such as SO1.In this way, the third party service provider is enabled to develop the‘call forwarding with short message application’ e.g. app2 without priorknowledge of the technology used by the first manufactures of the WTAterminal capability and the second manufacturer of the SMS terminalcapability.

[0044] Even more, when the third party service provider wants to offerthis service to a second user that uses a second terminal (not shown)with its installed WTA and SMS terminal capabilities of some othermanufacturers, no redesign of the application is required as long thatthe terminal comprises a terminal capability server CS according to thepresent invention.

[0045] A second example that will be described to explain a furtheradvantage of the present invention concerns the application on the USIMi.e. app3 and app4. Presume that the application app3 on the terminalapplication means APP3 provides a service to the user that relates toits banking account i.e. its overall expenses over a predeterminedperiod. The service provider of the bank provides at regular timemoments by means of a short message the expenses made during the actualmonth. The information is also stored in the application means APP3 foreventual later inquiry. Furthermore, presume that the application app4on the terminal application means APP4 provides a service to the userthat relates to its expenses at its food store over a predeterminedperiod. The preferred service provider of the food store keeps track ofthe expenses of the clients which are desiring such a service andfurthermore provides on a regular base the expenses made in the foodstore during the actual month. The information is also stored in theapplication means APP4 for eventual later inquiry. Although that bothapplications are located at the USIM and that both application meansAPP3 and APP4 are interacting with the terminal capability CAP3 on theUSIM, according to prior art situations, both applications app3 and app4being developed by different service providers are not aware of eachother and the information concerning the other application. However, dueto the presence of the terminal capability server CS according to thepresent invention and in particular that part of the terminal capabilityserver for the USIM related terminal capabilities CAP3, the terminalapplication means APP3 and APP4 are interacting with capability CAP3according to a uniform way that is transparent to the user. Hereby it isenabled to provide information from one USIM application to the otherUSIM application. Even a service provider that is different from thebank service provider and the food store service provider is enabled todevelop in a technology independent way a further application that e.g.calculates the percentage of the food store expenses versus the overallexpenses during the actual month (not shown).

[0046] Furthermore, the extra application can be improved byautomatically sending a short message to a second user of the identicalbanking account in order to give this second user a warning when apredefined amount of expenses is reached by one or the otherapplication. In the event when terminal capability CAP4 is a SATfunctional block, upon request of the USIM, CAP4 commands the shortmessage terminal capability means e.g. CAP 2 to generate automatically ashort message towards the second user.

[0047] Even more, the application is further developed to additionallytransmit a detailed list of the expenses, but only in the event whenthis second user is actually using a terminal with high displaycapabilities. Therefore, it is preferred to interrogate first, accordingto the extra application, the actual user profile of this second user byinteracting with the home network capabilities. When, however this userprofile network application is managed by a third party service provideroutside the core network, it is necessary to inquiry this third partyservice provider and to known its identification references. Thereforethe predefined application open signals are defined in accordance with apredefined network open service architecture information whereby e.g.this information can be requested to the network according to astandardized way.

[0048] The capabilities of the actual terminal (not shown) in use by thesecond user can be requested also directly to this terminal i.e. via thevirtual home identification of the second user. Due to the presence of acapability server CS at this actual terminal of the second user thecapabilities of this terminal are requested to the terminal directly ina way that is totally transparent for the second user himself.

[0049] The third example concerns a terminal application app1 i.e. a WTAapplication on terminal application means APP1 that provides the serviceof listening to voice messages. It explains however the interaction of aterminal according to the present invention with a network that supportsopen service architecture.

[0050] The terminal application means APP1 interacts with the terminalcapability CAP1 i.e. a WTA client in order to execute the ‘voice messageapplication’. Presume that a third party service provider 3rdSP offersthe application to the network of keeping track and storing voicemessages. Herewith the 3rd service provider 3rdSP provides also theterminal application for the end-users of providing the voice messagesupon request of the user. Furthermore, this 3rd party service providerwants to offer an extra service towards its users that are roaming in avisited network VN with a Camel version 1 VS1 that does not supportinteraction with a user using announcement voice prompting andinformation collection via in-band interaction. The extra serviceconcerns the translation of the voice message into text TXT and thetransmission of this text TXT message that is indeed supported by theCamel version 1 VS1. Now, when a user of the terminal T is roaming in avisited network VN and desires to listen to its voice messages, the userselects on the terminal the voice mail application app1. Furthermore,when the user wants to listen to one of its received voice messages, theapplication app1 interrogates, via the terminal capability server CS andunder the support of the terminal capability CAP1 the installed Camelversion VS of the visited network VN. This is shown with the requestmessage Req(VS). Due to the accordance of the predefined applicationopen signals, used by the terminal capability server CS, with theinformation of the 3GPP network open service architecture, the terminalis enabled to request the network for its Camel version. The visitednetwork VN reacts by providing to the terminal is Camel version VS1,which is however too low and not adapted to request the 3rd serviceprovider 3rdSP for the voice message. Upon reception of the Camelversion VS1 by the terminal application means APP1, via the terminalcapability CAP1 and the terminal capability server CS, the applicationapp1 is further executed by the terminal application means APP1. In theevent when the Camel version should have been a higher version e.g.Version 2 or Version 3, the terminal T could have asked, via the mobilenetwork to the 3rd party service provider 3rd SP for transmission of thevoice message. This is shown with a dotted line Req(V). However, due tothe lower version V1, the application app1 requests for texttransmission via the terminal capability server CS and the short messageterminal capability CAP2, from the terminal T, via the mobile shortmessage service functionality SMS and the short message service—networkservice capability server SMS-SCS to the third party service provider3rdSP. This is shown with Req(TXT). Upon reception of this request the3rdSP transforms the voice message into texts and transmits the text TXTto the terminal T via the mobile switching center MSC.

[0051] While the principles of the invention have been described abovein connection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understoodthat this description is made only by way of example and not as alimitation on the scope of the invention, as defined in the appendedclaims.

1. A terminal (T) for use in a communication network, said terminal (T)comprising a plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1, CAP2, CAP3,CAP4) to realize a plurality of terminal capability features and coupledthereto a terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) tointeract with one or more of said plurality of terminal capability means(CAP1, CAP2, CAP3, CAP4) and to execute thereby a terminal application(app1; app2; app3; app4), characterized in that said terminal (T)further comprises at least one terminal capability server means (CS)coupled between said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4)and to at least one of said plurality of terminal capability means(CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4), said terminal capability server means (CS)being adapted to translate a first application signal (S1) received fromsaid at least one of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1;CAP2; CAP3; CAP4) into a first predefined application open signal (SO1)and to provide said first predefined application open signal (SO1) tosaid terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) and also beingadapted to translate a second predefined application open signal (SO2)received from said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4)into a second application signal (S2) and to provide said secondapplication signal (S2) to said at least one of said plurality ofterminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4), said firstpredefined application open signal (SO1) and said second predefinedapplication open signal (SO2) being independent of an underlyingtechnology of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2;CAP3; CAP4).
 2. The terminal according to claim 1, characterized in thatsaid first predefined application open signal (SO1) and said secondpredefined application open signal (SO2) are defined in correspondenceto a predefined network open service architecture interface information.3. The terminal (T) according to any one of claim 1 and claim 2,characterized in that at least two of said plurality of terminalcapability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4) are interacting with eachother by means of capability signals comprising information inaccordance with any one of said first predefined application open signal(SO1) and said second predefined application open signal (SO2) and apredefined network open service architecture interface information.
 4. Aterminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) to be executed by aterminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) of a terminal (T)according to any previous claim, characterized in that said terminalapplication (app1; app2; app3; app4) is adapted to be executed accordingto received and transmitted open signals (SO1, SO2, . . . ) similar toany one of said first predefined application open signal (SO1) and saidsecond predefined application open signal (SO2) and being independent ofan underlying terminal technology of said plurality of terminalcapability means (CAP1; CAP 2; CAP3; CAP4).
 5. The terminal application(app1; app2; app3; app4) according to claim 4, characterized in thatsaid terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) comprises data incorrespondence to a predefined network open service architectureinterface.
 6. A carrier for a terminal application (app1; app2; app3;app4), characterized in that said carrier is adapted to carry a terminalapplication (app1; app2; app3; app4) according to any one of claim 4 andclaim
 5. 7. A method to execute a terminal application (app1; app2;app3; app4) by a terminal (T) comprising the step of realizing aplurality of terminal capability features by a plurality of terminalcapability means (CAP1, CAP2, CAP3, CAP4), and interacting by a terminalapplication means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) with at least one of saidplurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4), andthereby executing by said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3;APP4) a terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4), characterized inthat said method further comprises the steps of by at least one terminalcapability server means (CS) translating a first application signal (S1)received from said at least one of said plurality of terminal capabilitymeans (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4) into a first predefined application opensignal (SO1), and providing said first predefined application opensignal (SO1) to said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3;APP4), and translating a second predefined application open signal (SO2)received from said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4)into a second application signal (S2), and providing said secondapplication signal (S2) to said at least one of said plurality ofterminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4); and said firstpredefined application open signal (SO1) and said second predefinedapplication open signal (SO2) being independent of an underlyingtechnology of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2;CAP3; CAP4).
 8. A communication network, characterized in that saidcommunication network comprises at least one of a terminal (T) accordingto any one of claim 1 to claim 3, a terminal application (app1; app2;app3; app4) according to any one of claim 4 and claim 5 and a carrieraccording to claim 6.